The Needle That Changed Grandma's Hand Forever

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Great Depression, a simple sewing accident turned into a month-long ordeal for Joy Neal Kidney's grandmother. A broken needle lodged in her hand led to multiple trips to the doctor, surgery, and weeks of recovery at a time when money was scarce, transportation was limited, and even getting medical care was a challenge.

Joy Neal Kidney shares the story of one small family mishap that reveals what everyday life in rural America was really like during the Great Depression. Be sure to check out her book Leora's Dexter Storiesfor more great family history like this.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to Ouramerican Stories dot com.
That's our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
Speaking of which up next, Joyneil Kidney a listener and
storyteller who hails from our great iheartstation Whhow ten forty

(00:33):
in Des Moines, Iowa. Joy is the author of Leara's
Letters and Leora's Dexter Stories The Scarcity Years of the
Great Depression. Here's a story about a needle incident Joy's
grandmother went through during those years.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
My grandparents were all dressed up to go out to
a wedding maybe or a funeral. In the January nineteen
thirty five black and white photto, Clay Wilson has on
a three piece suit and a tweed nooseboy type or
Gatsby cap. Leora is in a dark two piece outbit,
wearing pumps, silk stockings and a hat with a little feather. Mom,

(01:17):
do you know where your folks might have been going
in this old picture? I asked, yes. They were waiting
for a ride to the clinic so she could have
the needle removed from her hand. Oh, I knew that
needle story. Grandma was visiting us once at the farm

(01:37):
when I was a girl. She caught me parking a
sewing needle in the arm of the couch. Never leave
a needle like that, you could end up with an
ordeal like I once had. She showed me how she
couldn't flatten her right hand. Grandma Leora told how she'd
lodged a quilting needle in the bib of an apron

(01:58):
worn over her house dress. Her tub washer was broken,
so she scrubbed the laundry for nine people, mind you,
on a corrugated metal washboard. She felt the stab in
the palm of her hand. It happened so fast, she
said it had broken off with the larger end in
her palm. She couldn't get a hold of it to

(02:20):
pull it out. My grandparents had no extra money for
a doctor, but great depression years or not, she sure
needed one. Doctor Keith Chappler numbed her hand and fished
around for the needle, but he couldn't find it. He
sent her home, said to soak the hand in hot
water and he'd get a time set up for X rays.

(02:43):
Out of clinic. Leora didn't think about how hot the
water was. She couldn't feel it. It scalded the skin
on her hand, so now they had to wait until
the burn healed. This was also during the winter, so

(03:03):
another worry was that she might come down with a
bad cold or worse after having been put under with ether,
which was used as an anesthetic. The fragment of steel
had been located on the X ray, but the doctor
still had trouble finding it when he managed to cut

(03:25):
it out. Afterwards, she was nauseous from breathing the ether.
Her hand was encased in porous plaster for about a month,
making housework a challenge for this busy woman. It's a
good thing their daughter, Doris, was in high school then,
and Leora's mother lived nearby and could help out. Yes,
in the old picture, I can see that she's holding

(03:47):
her hand behind her. That's the only clue. But why
would they get all dressed up for that, I asked, Well,
during those depression years, Clave had two sets of clothing
overalls and the suit, and Leora's choices were her housework
dress or the good one. I later learned that Clay

(04:07):
had sold his Modelty truck, so they had no transportation.
Doctor Keith Chapler, who did the surgery on Leora's hand,
had arrived in Dexter in nineteen thirty three fresh out
of medical school, along with doctor Robert Osborne. That July,

(04:28):
law officers burst into the doctor's office with two criminals,
Buckham Blanche Barrow. There had been a shootout in Dexfield Park.
Buck the brother of Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde notoriety,
had a severe head wound from an earlier gunfight. He
and his wife had just been arrested at Dexfield Park.

(04:50):
Bonnie and Clyde got away. Doctors Chapler and Osborne spent
their entire careers in the town of Dexter, Iowa, ushering
hundreds of us into the world, taking out our tonsils,
and administering our first polio vaccines. The museum in town
has a large exhibit about the Dexter Clinic Hospital and

(05:11):
another about the shootout in Dexfield Park with the Barrel Gang.
The clave in Leora Wilson family is also featured. All
seven children grew up in Dexter during the Depression. All
five brothers served in World War Two. Only two came home.

(05:34):
Small town newspapers offer local tidbits, such as Leora's needle story.
The Sentinel reported that missus clave Wilson thinks she found
something harder to locate than the proverbial needle in a haystack,
and that is a needle in the hand. While washing
out a few things by hand, she rammed the blunt

(05:56):
end of the needle about halfway into the fleshy part
of her hand, the point breaking off so that it
was impossible to pull out the embedded part. The needle
had been left in a dress where she had stuck
it while quilting. She did not visit the doctor until afternoon,
and by that time the needle could not be located.

(06:17):
It was necessary to have X ray pictures taken to
find the little steel dagger, which by that time had
traveled to the first joint of the thumb. An incision
was made Tuesday morning and the needle removed. But missus
Wilson's advice to all needle users is, in the first place,

(06:38):
remove all such weapons from articles of clothing before pushing
them on a washboard, and second, do not wait several
hours before getting medical attention. If once you get stuck
with a needle decades later. That was also Grandma Leore's
advice to a granddaughter who also learned to hunt for

(06:59):
the real and sometimes poignant stories behind old photographs.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
And a great job is always by Monte for the
production of the story. Join Neil Kidney's story the story
of her Grandma's needle incident here on Our American Stories

(07:29):
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(07:51):
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